This invention relates to marine seismic exploration and more particularly to long source and receiver arrays for suppressing multiple reflections.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,491,848 -- Giles and No. 3,893,539 -- Mott-Smith show examples of long source and detector arrays used in seismic exploration. A long source transfers energy along the reflection path more efficiently than a point source. This increased efficiency is due to the sharply peaked amplitude response of the long source.
Many techniques have been employed to improve the signal-to-noise ratio of seismograms produced in marine seismic exploration. Conventional noise suppression, dereverberation and stacking techniques are useful. However, in some cases, the presence of multiple reflections is so pronounced that the dynamic response of the recording system is exceeded. In this case, no amount of post-shooting processing will make the seismograms useful. It is desirable to perform the exploration with an array of sources and detectors which discriminates against these multiple reflections.